Youth/Schools

Educational Programs and Resources:

Youth 2 Youth Advocacy Program

  • Healthy Androscoggin helps to support a Youth 2 Youth (Y2Y) Advocacy Program which harnesses the ideas, talents and energy of youth (12 to 17 years old) to improve the health of community members through advocacy and education.  Currently, Healthy Androscoggin is working closely with 4 Y2Y groups
  • Each group is led by an advisor who works closely with youth to organize their group’s meetings and facilitate the partnership with Healthy Androscoggin.
  • Here some examples of projects that Youth 2 Youth groups have led:
    • Encouraging their friends to register in Healthy Androscoggin’s annual Get Fit & Win Program , which encourages community members to increase their physical activity for better health and program prizes.
    • Educating first graders in Androscoggin County about the dangers of smoking by presenting Samantha Skunk in classrooms.
    • Auburn Middle School Y2Y  and Healthy Androscoggin’s Tobacco Coordinator worked closely with Androscoggin Land Trust on a Tobacco-Free Policy for all ALT trails.

    • Auburn Middle School Youth 2 Youth members help Androscoggin Land Trust go Tobacco-Free

  • Check out the Y2Y Facebook page to see more projects groups are involved in!

  • Samantha Skunk

    • Samantha Skunk is a K-2 program led by local middle and high school students. With camel friends Stu and Stella Stench, Samantha Skunk teaches children in a non-threatening atmosphere about the dangers of tobacco and that “smoking stinks like camel’s breath.”

  • Tar Wars

    • A tobacco-free education program and poster contest for 5th graders. The number of 5th grade students reached by Tar Wars has increased to 90% since the program was first offered in 1995.

Maine Coordinated School Healthy Program

  • A Coordinated School Health Program(CSHP) is an effective system designed to connect health with education. This coordinated approach to school health improves students’ health and their capacity to learn. Coordinated School Health Program websites reduce absenteeism and classroom behavior problems, improve classroom performance and better prepare students to be productive members of their communities
    • 8 Components of a Coordinated School Health Program
      • Youth, parent, family and community involvement
      • Comprehensive school health education
      • Physical activity and physical education
      • School counseling and physical & behavioral health services
      • Nutrition services
      • Health promotion and wellness
      • Physical environment
      • School climate

More information is available by contacting:
Payson Swan
School Health Coordinator,
Lewiston Public Schools
156 East Avenue

Lewiston, ME 04240
Phone: 207-795-4190 ext. 271 Fax: 207-795-4119
Email: pswan@lewistonpublicschools.org